Political Briefs;THE STATES AND THE ISSUES

By ROBIN TONER

Published: May 14, 1996

Nebraska Republicans Staging A Fierce Senate Race

Nebraska's voters will decide today on a Republican nominee for the Senate. The nomination might seem a mixed blessing: Despite a big Republican edge in voter registration, the state's voters have not elected a Republican senator in a quarter century.

Still, this has been a fiercely competitive Republican primary between Don Stenberg, the State Attorney General, and Chuck Hagel, an Omaha investment banker. Any pretense of civility between the two was shattered two weeks go when they engaged in a shouting match at a joint appearance. Mr. Hagel called Mr. Stenberg a career politician. Mr. Stenberg accused Mr. Hagel of being a carpetbagger. (These are high sins in Campaign '96.)

Mr. Hagel, a decorated Vietnam veteran, worked in Washington for several years as a Congressional aide and in a variety of positions for the Reagan and Bush Administrations, including deputy administrator of the Veterans Administration. He returned to Nebraska four years ago and bills himself as a political outsider willing to make tough choices.

Mr. Stenberg is campaigning as a conservative who is tough on crime -- he oversaw the first execution in Nebraska in 40 years -- and accuses Mr. Hagel of having an election-year conversion to conservative positions on gun control and abortion.

Whoever wins will go up against Governor Ben Nelson, a popular Democrat who was re-elected with 73 percent of the vote two years ago. All this scrambling was occasioned when the state's senior Democratic Senator, Jim Exon, decided to retire.

Rhode Island Republicans Chary Of One Freshman

House freshmen are generally considered the most vulnerable of incumbents, but there are always exceptions. One, so far, is Representative Patrick J. Kennedy, the 28-year-old son of Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

John A. Holmes Jr., chairman of the Rhode Island Republican Party, groused: "It has been really tough to get anybody interested in running against Patrick Kennedy. Raising enough money has been the biggest concern of everybody I've talked to." The younger Mr. Kennedy spent more than $1 million in 1994 to win his seat in Rhode Island's First Congressional District, defeating a relatively well-financed Republican, Kevin Vigilante.

Since then, Mr. Kennedy has worked assiduously at constituent services and used his family entree to bring in a parade of foreign leaders from countries that have large immigrant populations in Rhode Island, including Portugal and Italy.

He has also kept a low profile nationally, generally shying from the national media. "As much as I'm proud of my father," Mr. Kennedy said, "I didn't want the first image of me in Washington to be just as his son. I would have been dismissed as the kid Congressman."

Mr. Holmes asserts, "He hasn't done anything for Rhode Island, but he has done a very good job of smoke and mirrors."

The filing deadline there is not until June 26, and Republicans still hve hopes.

West Virginia Primary to Narrow Field for Governor

West Virginia will begin to winnow the field today in the race to succeed Gov. Gaston Caperton, a Democrat.

Charlotte Pritt, a former State Senator and coal miner's daughter running with strong labor support, has been leading in the polls in the struggle for the Democratic nomination. But State Senator Joe Manchin 3d, who is running with business support, is widely considered to be very much in the running after an intensely competitive campaign.

On the Republican side, former Gov. Cecil Underwood is trying to return to an office for which he last won election in 1956. Jon McBride, a former space shuttle pilot, and David McKinley, a former state Republican chairman, are among his main competitors. ROBIN TONER